


lyubimyy

by verbaeghe



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Blacksmithing, M/M, Mentor/Protégé, Tampa Bay Lightning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-10
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-07-05 12:03:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15863244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verbaeghe/pseuds/verbaeghe
Summary: “I have a gift for you.” King Yzerman raises a hand and a couple of guards step forward. There’s someone Ben can’t quite make out between them. Whoever it is doesn’t seem happy, and the guards are all but dragging him into view. His tone sounds annoyed when he says something in the local language and Ben isn’t sure he can blame him.Ben squints at the...kid? “With all due respect, Your Highness, what am I supposed to do with a person?”





	lyubimyy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blueorangecrush](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueorangecrush/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Favorite](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11392611) by [blueorangecrush](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueorangecrush/pseuds/blueorangecrush). 



> I hope you enjoy this! :)

**1.**

Ben has always thought that being the blacksmith to King Yzerman is probably the best way that his life could have shaken out. The king doesn’t trust easily, but Ben has earned it. And then some. It’s deserved, and he’s worked very hard to get to this place in his life. His metal work is hailed as the best in seven kingdoms for a reason.

Ben isn’t much of a braggart, but he could be if he was that sort of person.

Anyway, he’s just gotten word that the latest raid, or mission...whatever it is that the king likes to call these events, against the Kingdom of Detroit is over, a success as usual, and so it’s time for him to start packing up.

He leans away from the cloud of steam that billows up when he submerges the traveling kiln into a barrel of water. It’s a lesson that he learned the hard way back when he was just an apprentice. He’s just turning to get down to packing everything up when Sir Cooper, the king’s general, appears at the entrance to his work tent, clearing his throat.

Ben sighs, annoyed at being stopped before he can even really get started. “Yes?”

“The king would like to see you.”

“I’ll be right there.” Ben doesn’t want to go see the king, not right now when he has so much to do, but. Well, there isn’t much of a choice when it’s the king summoning you.

“Don’t sound so annoyed.” Sir Cooper grins at him. “Maybe it will be worth your while.” He smiles at Ben in that way he has, that _‘hey, we’re friends, right?'_  thing he does, when they are in fact _not_ friends.

Ben's annoyance level aside, that statement from Sir Cooper means he is about to get a gift of some sort. The king is always quite generous, especially after big wins like this one. He’s never received the same thing twice, and it’s nice the king is thinking of him, but still. There’s no one here to pack but him and the men get pissy when he isn’t ready to roll out the same time as everyone else.

Sir Cooper prattles on while they walk to the king’s tent, but Ben honestly doesn’t listen to a word he says (tuning him out is another skill he's perfected). They share an awkward goodbye before Ben slips through the flaps and into the waiting area.

He’s summoned forward almost immediately.

“Bishop, my smithy, your work is strong and true,” King Yzerman says while Ben takes a knee in front of him. “Get up, get up. You know how much the bowing annoys me.” Ben hops up but keeps his head inclined for a second so he can laugh to himself.

“I’m glad that my work has served you well through another campaign, Your Highness.”

“I have a gift for you.” He raises a hand and a couple of guards step forward. There’s someone Ben can’t quite make out between them. Whoever it is doesn’t seem happy, and the guards are all but dragging him into view. His tone sounds annoyed when he says something in the local language and Ben isn’t sure he can blame him.

Ben squints at the...kid? “With all due respect, Your Highness, what am I supposed to do with a person?”

“He came from the home of the blacksmith, we figured you need an apprentice. You aren’t getting any younger, Bishop.” Yzerman pauses, cocks his head, grins. “Hey, why is your last name Bishop but you’re a smithy?”

“I was never particularly interested in the family business.” Ben offers the king a smirk. “Thank you for the apprentice, Your Highness.”

“I know you’ll teach him well,” Yzerman says, waving a hand in dismissal.

 

**2.**

Ben pauses over the task of starting his kiln. This is exactly the sort of thing he should be showing his new apprentice, how to properly stoke the kiln when they return home from one of the king’s missions, but he still hasn’t really talked to the kid at all.

He’s tried. For the whole two weeks they’d spent traveling home, Ben tried to talk to him, engage him, to make him feel welcome, but the response hadn’t been anything more than a grunt or two. Maybe an occasional frown, but that’s been the entire extent of their communication to this point.

Suddenly it dawns on him that they’d been in a different country and maybe it’s just…Ben walks over to where his apprentice is sitting, staring at the ground. He goes down on one knee, places a hand on his arm. He flinches, but doesn’t pull away.

“Do you speak English?” Ben asks softly. The boy -- well, no, he isn’t a boy, he just has a young face -- looks up at him with wide eyes that make them seem bigger than they really are. He’s scared, and Ben doesn’t want that. At all.

“Little?” he says slowly.

“How much?”

“Little,” he repeats. He offers Ben a small, nervous smile. It’s sort of cute.

“What’s your name?” Ben tries. He gets a blank look. “Hmm, okay.” He ponders how to get his question across for a minute, and then a completely obvious way comes to him. He pats his chest. “Ben.”

“Ben?” he repeats. Ben nods, repeating the action until he gets it. “Ben. You.”

“Yes, Ben, me.” Ben taps him in the chest, raises his eyebrows in question.

“Andrei,” he replies, hitting his own chest a couple of times.

Finally, they’re getting somewhere.

“Andrei, come with me?” Ben stands, offers a hand. Andrei looks between Ben and his hand a few times before he lets Ben lead him over to the kiln.

Ben doesn’t know how much Andrei will understand, but he still talks him through every step of getting the kiln stoked back to life. He seems interested in something for the first time, and Ben is happy that maybe he won’t be totally miserable. “You like this?”

He nods, which don’t really help Ben know if he knows what he was asked, but he holds out a hand and says, “Let me?”

Ben watches him fan up the flames, quickly getting the wood up to the right temperature.

“Wow, you’re.” He stops, not sure how to word it so Andrei will understand him.

“Was already apprentice,” Andrei says with a grin. “Learned some things already.”

Ben blinks at him. “Like English?”

Andrei laughs and turns back to the fire.

“Yeah, maybe.”

“You could have told me so I didn’t stand there looking like an idiot,” Ben replies, amused despite himself.

“What fun is that?” He cocks his head, still studying the flames. “I’m your apprentice now?”

“Yeah, or you can be someone else’s, if you decide you don’t like my work style.”

“Thought I’m yours,” he replies, sounding more than just a bit bitter.

“I would never force you to stay with me if you don’t like it here.”

Andrei blinks up at him, his eyes wide again. It isn’t fear this time, but Ben isn’t totally sure what it is.

“You would let me leave?” Andrei asks slowly.

“Yes.”

"Even if I wanted to go home?"

Ben doesn't know if he'd be offending King Yzerman, if it would count as refusing a gift, but Andrei is a human, and so, "Of course I would."

He stands there, studying Ben so intently that Ben wants to fidget under his gaze. Finally, he says, “I want you to show me.”

Ben can do that.

 

**3.**

Ben decides that he’ll still show Andrei around to the other blacksmiths in the area, let him decide for himself if there’s someone better for him to learn under. He was allowed to pick his master, and he doesn’t see any reason that he can’t give Andrei the same choice.

So Ben takes him around to the other three blacksmiths in town, explains how each of them do things their own way, how their work differs from his. And, in one case, how it’s similar to his.

“Do you have any questions?” Ben asks once they’re on the way back to his place. Andrei shakes his head. “Do you think you would like to learn under any of them instead of me?”

“No, I think your way is my…” He pauses, mutters a word to himself that Ben has never heard before, it sounds like lyubimyy, which, Ben doesn’t want to try to spell that. He doesn’t have the strongest grasp on spelling on his best days, and that’s with his native language.

Ben realizes that the point has gotten away from him right around the time Andrei shakes his head and looks back up. “Best. Your way is best.”

“Are you sure?” Andrei nods at him. “Well, let’s get started, then.”

//

Andrei takes to it quickly. He’s strong, way stronger than he looks, and he’s so smart, quick to catch on to everything Ben shows him with usually only one or two examples needed.

It isn’t long before Ben is letting him heat and hammer his own metal, and barely another week passes before his shaping is good enough for Ben to let him try to make a sword of his own.

Holy shit, is Ben ever impressed by that first sword. “I can’t believe this is your first sword.”

“Is bad?”

“Bad? No! It’s. You did a good job. The weight and balance are almost perfect!” Ben just stops himself from blurting out that Andrei is going to have his job someday, but he will. And probably soon.

He wonders what he’ll do once Andrei is making all the king’s swords and armor. Early retirement, maybe?

At least the kingdom will remain in good, able hands.

//

The king calls to have an elaborate array of items presented to choose from for an upcoming joust. While Andrei hasn’t moved on to making any pieces of armor just yet, his swords are already second to none. Even already better than Ben’s are.

Ben mixes a couple of Andrei’s swords in with his own, and is pleased when King Yzerman picks one of Andrei’s most recent swords to use. 

Ben is just this side of giddy when he tells Andrei about it.

“It’s just for a joust,” Andrei replies. He’s trying to be dismissive of the whole situation, but his small smile and the flush high on his cheeks gives him away.

Ben spends the rest of his night trying to convince himself that he doesn’t find it attractive.

He absolutely fails.

 

**4.**

“We should celebrate,” Ben says.

“Celebrate what?” Andrei asks.

“No matter what you think, it’s a pretty big deal to have King Yzerman choose your sword.” Ben smiles. “And I got you a new tunic, so we may as well go out.” He holds it up.

“Don’t care about impressing the king,” Andrei replies quietly, reaching for the offered item.

“What do you care about?” Ben asks. Andrei must care about something, with all the time and care he puts into every sword.

Andrei shoots him a look that Ben is pretty sure is questioning his mental facilities. “I’ll go change.”

“Where do you want to go?” Ben asks when Andrei emerges from his room. “I mean, we can go to--”

He’s surprised when his suggestion is cut off by a kiss. “You. Celebrate-- Just you, just us.”

“We’re supposed to go out and celebrate. I’m not supposed to take advantage of you. You’re my apprentice, not my...my…”

“Is that rule? Is stupid rule if so. I can be taken from my home, I can-- How do they say? Make weapons for your king to use against _my_ men, I can be moved against my will to another country with only bit of English, but I can’t kiss you?”

Ben shakes his head, studying his hands when he says, “I don’t know how to argue with that.”

“Good. Don’t.”

Ben can’t. He doesn’t want to. He doesn’t know what this is going to mean, how it’s going to affect their work relationship, if it will change how he feels when Andrei takes over his mantle. Ben doesn’t even know if he’ll regret this in two hours, but right now?

Now he’s just going to give in.

//

Ben wakes up the next morning in Andrei’s room. In Andrei’s _bed_.

And Andrei is already awake and looking down at him. He seems pleased, if a little nervous. “Hi, lyubimyy. You sleep well?”

He does feel well-rested, especially considering the events of last night. “I guess I must have.”

“Maybe you should sleep in here more,” Andrei suggests.

“Or maybe you could sleep in my room.”

“Maybe,” Andrei replies in an agreeing tone.

Ben stretches, ponders the non-English word that Andrei just said, and knowing that he used it for best before, he can’t imagine that is the right word in this context. “Andrei, what is lu-be-me?” He grimaces at how terrible the word sounds coming from him.

“Lyubimyy is you,” Andrei replies, running a finger along Ben’s collarbone.

“I’m...best?”

“No.” He smiles. “Well, yes, but I mean more like, uh, like most?”

“I’m your favorite?” Ben asks before blushing at the implication.

“Does favorite mean that?”

“Yeah,” Ben nods, pulling Andrei close.

“Then yes! You are my favorite!” Andrei presses a kiss to Ben’s lips. “And I want my favorite happy.”

“I want you happy too,” Ben replies, surprised by how much he means it.

Andrei smiles again. It’s bright. Beautiful even. “Always happy now that I have you.”


End file.
